Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

The euphoria of the first post passed quickly. I mean the contest organized by @calumam. The first word (for me) was "paradoxically" easy, although I was afraid of failing, as I was not used to such writings. What was easy for me, photos, memories, trips did not happen now. I can say that the first experience was pleasant!

The theme word for this week, "Power" is much more approachable than the philosophical Paradox. Power is constantly around us, even though most of the time it is not in our hands. I perceive power as a staff, at one end it is the one who holds it, and at the other, it is the one who obeys. Willingly or unwillingly!

The world and human society are built on the concept of power. From the most hidden and wild tribe in an Amazon forest to the most evolved country in the world, someone owns and exercises this power. From a diabolical healer or strong (physical) tribal chief to the most sophisticated methods and institutions that exercise power. Not to forget tyrants and dictators.

I was born in the middle of the twentieth century. As a child, in the first years of my life, I did not understand the notion of power and I only knew that of my parents.

Power, in the simplest and most vulgar sense, demands from others obedience, and if it does not come, punishment follows. The most basic form of education, the education made by the powerful, since the beginning of the world.

I was born in the middle of the last century and lived in a communist society for forty years. Communist society, I think the most oppressive society in the world. You are probably wondering why I say this, thinking of the black examples of antiquity and the Middle Ages.

Well, in antiquity, a tyrant or a pharaoh had absolute power and could decide, at will, who lived and who died, for example. All this madness was honest though because everyone knew their place and they accepted that.

Instead, in communist society, it was said that power belonged to the people, to every citizen. A huge lie! Everything was run by an entire administrative apparatus that always had a comrade on top. A comrade who often became a dictator decided for himself everything that was done in that country, but with the appearance that the decision was collective, of the whole people.

I insist on this example because I know enough about this communist society, living most of my life in a communist country. And not in any communist country, in Romania, formerly called the Socialist Republic of Romania, known to have had one of the most oppressive leaderships. Nicolae Ceausescu was called the leader who became dictator. The culmination was that his wife actually ran everything and was worse than her husband. Both were, first of all, totally uneducated. Because they made a kind of communist resistance when Romania was ruled by a king, after the victory against Nazi Germany, the Russian troops that occupied the country imposed a communist regime, subject to them and from here everything left. The Red Bolsheviks appointed them leaders. Of course, their theory that we were forced to learn in school said that they fought, drove out the monarchy, and formed the communist state. It was not like that, because there were initially very few communists in Romania.

After several years, when the communists occupied everything in the country, it was said about them that: "there were few but there were many left"

Such people have gained or received absolute power over a people. The absolute and unbearable impudence was that they claimed that the people were leading and deciding while the people were being exploited, working almost in vain and having no rights whatsoever.

All this long story to get to what I meant in the title ... "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

These smaller or bigger dictators, who became leaders through I don't know what the joke of history, receiving more and more powers, end up going crazy. Studies and statistics have been made and it has been concluded that all dictators were crazy. It seems unbelievable how they managed to subdue so many peoples, who with difficulty and many sacrifices managed to overthrow them, after decades.

I said above that I see the power represented by a wand, at one end the one who holds the power and at the other end, the obedient ones. With their help everything could be done, the power was consolidated and the dictator came to consider himself higher than a king, almost a god.

Some examples of what absolute power can mean. These are told facts, which circulate but I don't know if they are true ...

It is said that in Russia there is a railway built on a huge plain that at some point turns almost at a right angle, without any obstacles in front of it. Years later, the reason was revealed. Before construction, dictator Stalin drew the future route on a map with that line, and no one had the courage to say it was wrong.

In Romania, dictator Ceausescu wanted to build a new neighborhood, following the North Korean model, and for that, he demolished a very old and beautiful neighborhood. Those who made the demolition plans always asked him where to demolish and at such a meeting, there were several flies in the hall. The dictator tried to drive away the flies with his hands and the architects and party officials thought that he was showing which areas to demolish. Thus, hundreds of other houses were demolished in vain.

When I said that absolute power corrupts absolutely, I meant that the corrupt one is the brain that no longer works properly, no longer perceives reality, especially since all the obedient people around those who hold power only accentuate his madness, agreeing with all his wishes. This is where megalomania is born!

My little dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, wanted to demonstrate the superiority and power of communist society by building the largest building in the world! This in a small, poor, and hungry country. Nothing could stop him, he demolished tens of thousands of houses, historical monuments of great value. Just to build what he called the People's House, which obviously would not belong to the people.

This building shows best what power means! The power in the hands of one, of one man.

But the power used excessively takes revenge, most of the time. Dictator Ceausescu was executed on December 25, 1989. By another power! A small power at first but which has grown more and more. A power that will soon make almost the same mistakes. Although now we are in another society in Romania. Democratic society. The power is given by the people's vote. Power is given by money. Because now the power is bought with money.